Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 2.djvu/222

 GALLU TBANS. (p. 178) of QallU genenJly, that ''no part of it rsnuuDed unproductive, except where there were Bwamps or forests, and even theM parts ivere inha- bited, yet rather on account of the populouenese than bj reason of the industry of the people ; for the women are good breedere and careful inothere, but the men are more inclined to war than tilling the ground: but now," he says, ''they are compelled to till the ground since they have kid down their arms." There is no doubt that Qaliia was a populous oountry in Caesar's time, populous at least after the measure of antiquity. There were not so many, nor wmck huge, towns as then are now; and there may faaTB been a Hunger aubtt covered with forest We may suppoee, also^ that the lands od the riven and in the low oountriee were less completely embanked: flo there would be more swamp and marsh. But the dry lands were cultivated, and well-inhabited. The proofii are abundant. The news of the insurrection at Qenabum in B.a 58 was carried into the country of the Arveml, a distance of 160 Roman miles, as Caesar reckons it, between sun-rise and before the «nd of the first watch of the evening on a winter's day. (A. (?. vii. 3.) This passage, which has some- times been most absurdly explained, is a clear proof that the country was populous. The news was passed on from village to viUage. Men must have run to carrv it; those who receivcti the mws ran on as fast as they could to the next village, and so on. In hu wars we find that Caesar had few supplies from Italy. He oould hardly get much, even from Cisalpine Qaliia, except horses. The resources of the Provinda helped him greatly; but in many parts of Gallia he got all that he wanted from the country, '— com, cattle, hides, and materials for clothing. The war supported him, and even made him rich. The communications seem to have been pretty good in some parts. There were reads; well-known fords at the rivers, which imply roads; and wooden bridges, in Celtica at least Caesar even mentions a bridge ^&(r.iL 5) over the Axona (^lune), in the territory of theRemL The Galli were acquainted with the use of the metals. The Bituriges had skill in mining {B. G. 'viL 88), which they found useful wboi the Bomans besieged thdr town Avaricum. They worked iron mines extensively. Some of the Celtic nations coined jnoney; the Sequani, for instance. They may have learned this from the Massaliot Greeks and their colonies, as well as the use of letters; for they used the Orrak alphabet There appears to be no evi- dence that the Galli ever had any other than the Greek or the Roman alphabet, which are the same. Strabo (p. 189) has some remarks on the great natural advantages of Gallia, both for internal and foreign trsde. He says, that it is worth while to observe the adaptation oif the country to the rivers fuid to the sea, both the ocean and the inland sea ; for, if any one will attentively examine, he will find that this is not among the least of the advantages of the country : *' I mean," he says, " that the neces- saries of life are easily interchanged among all, and the advantages are nude open to all ; so that, evm in such things as these, one may believe that there is evidence of the work of Providence, the parts of this oountry being placed with respect to one another, not as chance might have it, but with wise purpose.*' The basin of the Atax (Aude)^ on which Nofiotme stands, is connected with the basin of the Guramte by an easy oountry ; and the .basiqs of both rivers GALLU TRANS. 963 are connected with Spain by the passes at the two ends of the Pyrenees. Between the head of the Sadne and the waters of the Seine is a portage of small extent ; and there was a navigation down the Seine to the sea, and thence an easy voyage to Britain. As the narigation up the Rhone was difficult, some of the goods from the Provincia were taken in carts by an easy land road to the country of the Arvemi and the Upper Loire^ and so carried down to the ocean, lliere were four sea-routes fnmt Gallia to Britain, — from the country of the Morim, from the Seme, from the Zotre, and from the Garmme, These natunU advantages of France were not neglected before it became a Roman provincia ; but they were used much more afterwards, when the Romans made so many excellent roads in the country. It is a signal example of bad administration in this fine country, that its natural capabilities were neglected for 80 many centuries, and that till comparatively recent thnes so little has been done to facilitate the intercliange of the necessaries of life, and " make these advantages open to all." The political divisions of ancient Gallia would be a reason fur the demanding of tolls or duties on goods carried from one country to another ; a mode of raising money obvious to the rudest barbarian, and practised by all nations that ^1 themselves civilised. The Galli had river tolls before Caesar's time, and this impediment to com- merce existed in France till the great Revolution of 1789, up to which time the map of France and its political divisions preserved many of the great fea- tures of a map of Gallia that would fit the time of Caesar. The dirision of France into departments is one of the great monuments of her revolutionary convulsion. But political divisions cannot all at once erase national character; and France, only a part of Caesar's Gallia, is still a country of many tribes. The maritime commerce of the south was chiefly in the hands of the Massaliot Greeks, until tb« Romans came in for their share by settling Nar- bonne, and finally by reducing all the Greek towns under their dominion. This Massaliot commerce requires a notif'C by itself. The trade on the Atlantic in Caesar's time seems to have been in the hands of the Armoric states. The course of the tin trade with Britain is described by Diodorus (v. 22), and his description may be true for centuries before his time. The tradera sailed to the promontory Bele- rion (the Lands End) for the tin which the natives of Britain conveyed to an inland, Ictis (^AfomU SL Michael). The merchants took it from Ictis to the French coast, whence it was conveyed on pack- horses to the Rhone, and so down the river. The social and political condition of the Gallic nation before the Roman conquest would supply ma- terials for a long chapter. Thierry {Iligtoire dee Cratthit, Deuxieme Parties chap, i.) has treated this subject at some length, and in an instructive manner, though a careful reader will not accept all the conclusions that he derives from his authorities. The stories that are told of the great ferocity of the Gallic nations may |be true only of some of them, and their mannera were improving when the Romans came among them. Posidonius (Strab. p. 198), who travelled in Gallia in the second century before our aera, speaks of practices which probably belonged to some of the northern peoples only. "After battle," he says, "they used to fasten the heads of their enemies to their horses' necks, and when they got home nailed them to their doarB." He saw this often, dQ 8